@Cyndi Mathers, @Angela Tugan Miller, @Lorrie Weyant, @Connie Trabold, @Tami Przybylski Leonard, @Palomarez Tony Jessica, @Suzanne Bryan Townsend, @Cindy Arsnoe, @Reyna Orozco, Katherine Farrier Friends: This video seems to be well received by most women who watch it, because it’s so complimentary of women. That would be all well and good if the speaker were saying the wonderful things, either to a particular woman or women generally, only as a gesture of compliment and encouragement from one thoughtful human being to others. That’s what the intent seems to be. And on a purely human level there’s no reason to begrudge a woman or women the encouragement they might receive from the statements made. However, the context of this video invokes God, as Creator and assignor of human value. Though that in itself is appropriate, the inclusion of some of the statements and claims of greatness for a woman or women as though they were all God’s true message is not appropriate. This doesn’t invalidate all of the statements and claims, just some of them. The reason this is at issue is that once God is invoked as the source for some truth, we have a most serious obligation to accurately represent His truth, without adding flowery language that is unsupportable as His truth, even though it might be very complimentary and encouraging to someone. The video is shared here for anyone who wishes to review it to verify the text transcribed below. The text is truncated for simplicity but includes everything that gives the meaning and sense of what is said in the video. The objective of this commentary is to both affirm what is true and provable in Scripture, and illuminate what is not supportable in Scripture. This is to correct what is misleading about the video and show that the source of the misleading parts is the humanism that is so engrained into our modern culture that we don’t even recognize it when it’s mixed into the Gospel message of hope and human worth. There are two philosophical starting points, opposites of each other, which make a huge difference in the conclusions we can or should draw from this video. The righteous starting point is God’s view of His creation, and the other is Satan’s effort to pervert God’s view in our hearts and minds. Satan’s starting point is the humanism he has so effectively convinced most of the human race to adopt throughout history. To understand it we need to define the term, “humanism”. Though there are many sources on the internet that can help us understand humanism, please consult the page at christianparents/humanism.htm because it goes directly to the reason for challenge of some of the assertions in this video, and that is to help people understand where they learned this philosophy and how insidious it really is, even in the modern Christian church at large today. Also, Dictionary offers these very insightful definitions of humanism: “1. any system or mode of thought or action in which human interests, values, and dignity predominate. 4. Philosophy. a variety of ethical theory and practice that emphasizes reason, scientific inquiry, and human fulfillment in the natural world and often rejects the importance of belief in God. The first definition (1.) is the most relevant to this video, highlighting “human interests, values and dignity” as the predominant reason for this video. The second (4.) appropriately mentions “human fulfillment” as a humanistic desire. Though “secular humanism”, which Wikipedia defines well as a “nontheistic religion, philosophy, or life stance”, “rejects the importance of belief in God”, the video obviously includes belief in God as a vital basis for what we believe about ourselves. So, we need to examine the video in light of the term, “Christian humanism”, which Wikipedia says, “emphasizes the humanity of Jesus”, as opposed to His divinity as God, and emphasizes “his social teachings and his propensity to synthesize human spirituality and materialism.” Wikipedia accurately asserts that Christian humanism, “regards humanist principles like universal human dignity and individual freedom and the primacy of human happiness as essential and principal components of, or at least compatible with, the teachings of Jesus. Christian humanism can be perceived as a philosophical union of Judeo-Christian ethics and humanist principles.” Please note that the principles of “universal human dignity” and “individual freedom”, certainly did not originate with humanism but with principles evident in the Biblical record of what God established at the beginning of the world. This is vitally important to understand because promoters of humanism at all levels of our Western educational systems try to show humanism as the source for “universal human dignity” and “individual freedom” as a way of claiming moral superiority to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Also note that while “universal human dignity” and “individual freedom” are sourced from God, the “primacy of human happiness” is not. That is sourced in humanism, or more accurately in Satan’s effort to distort God’s purpose for all of His creation. God’s purpose is to glorify Himself and create beings that would be loyal to Him first and foremost whom He could bless with goodness beyond our imagining. The humanist assignment of “human happiness” as the primary and ultimate objective of humankind is the Satanic appeal to the corrupted nature of the human person, corrupted since Eve was first deceived by Satan and Adam was willfully disobedient to God’s prescription for nothing but goodness in the Garden of Eden. Both Eve and Adam chose vanity, self-centeredness, instead of loyalty to God and strict obedience to Him. So, with that preparation, let’s review what the video says, then try to understand its purpose and see if that fits with the perspective God provides us about ourselves in Scripture. Sections are numbered for easy reference. “Who You Are” 1. You are beautiful, smart, funny, kind, unique, 2. worthy of love and affection, 3. never too much, always enough, precious, a diamond, a rose, a pearl, 4. the most stunning of all God’s creation, 5. worth more than you could ever imagine, 6. more than the numbers on the scale, hair product you use, or the shoes you wear, 7. more than how many girls wish they were you, or how many guys wish they had you, 8. more than the price tags on your clothes, the percentage at the top of your math test, 9. or the number of followers you have on Twitter. 10. Your worth surpasses all earthly things, because, in the eyes of the Lord God you are loved, and you are worth dying for. 11. Regardless of who you think you are, whether you model in a magazine, or model pottery with Grandma, whether you’re on the hot list or the not list, whether you’re head cheerleader or a high school dropout, whether you’re miss popular or you’ve never had anyone you could call a friend, whether you love yourself and love your life, or you can’t stand to look in the mirror and you feel as if everything in your life is falling apart, whether you’re such a winner or you feel like the world’s biggest failure, regardless of who you think you are, the reality is, is that you deserve someone who would give up their life for you, because you are powerful and strong and capable. 12. Read about the women in the Bible, Esther, Ruth, Martha, Mary. These women changed the world forever, and inside of you, each and every one of you is a woman with that same power and that same strength and that same world-changing capability and your responsibility is to find that woman and to set that woman free. 13. This is who you are, and any voices in your mind that try and tell you differently are from the enemy. 14. And the next time you hear them, this is what you say, you say, “Uh uh, not me, Satan! 15. I am a daughter of the living God, cherished, loved and adored above all things by the creator of all things for the glory of Him who is greater than all things. 16. I am awesome!” 17. And please, don’t you forget it. ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY: Section 1 offers complementary descriptions that are universally acceptable when offered from a man to a woman whom the man cares for deeply. These are followed with acceptable descriptions in sections 2 and 3. Every woman would enjoy a heartfelt rendition of these words to woo and confirm her affections in return. Yet these are humanistic expressions, not necessarily divinely offered, and may or may not be truthful as descriptions of any given person. “Never too much” and “always enough” may be sincere hyperbole or flattery when describing a human being, yet are surely accurate in describing God. Even “worthy of love and affection”, though it appeals to the very heart, may not always apply to a given human being, but always applies to God. So, within the first three sections we already see a conflict between what is supportable and unsupportable in Scripture in describing humankind. Section 4 offers more subjective observation, entirely legitimate “in the eye of the beholder” as one man to one woman or women. But Scripture doesn’t make this claim about the appearance of human beings. Section 5 comes closer to a Biblical description of God’s valuation of human beings, but only if the reader interprets the claim from God’s perspective not from a humanistic perspective. The difference is that God’s valuation of human worth, as eternal spiritual beings, is more than humans can imagine while part of the temporal world. Yet often, humans imagine themselves worth more than they should, as superior to other human beings. If the person being spoken to in the video has the later view of their own worth, the video’s claim is not valid. The video speaker tries to offer context for section 5 in sections 6 through 9 by comparing the viewer’s actual worth as a person to abstract concepts (numbers on the scale, percentage on a math test). He also compares person-worth to abstract numbers of other people, without making a direct comparison to the worth of the other persons themselves. And he compares person-worth to material objects that might be particularly important to the women he addresses. Section 10 brings God into the picture being painted by the artist, God as the lover of human persons, vitally attributing the value of the human person to the reality of God’s love for the person, that undying love making the object of His love “worth dying for”. In Section 11 the speaker offers a list of comparative self-evaluations (“who you think you are”) his listeners can vicariously identify themselves with. He ends with a claim that “regardless of who you think you are…you deserve someone who would give up their life for you, because you are powerful and strong and capable.” This is where humanism presents itself. Humanism makes the human person the primary object of consideration in determining human value. Although the speaker just finished affirming God’s love as the source of human value, he now diverts from that to claim that the listener deserves “someone who would give up their life for you, because you are powerful and strong and capable”. Nowhere in Scripture is there support for the idea that any human person “deserves” to have another person give up their life for them. Someone may be willing to do so, out of love or a sense that another deserves to live more than himself or herself. But that is a voluntary assignment of “deserving” by another, not an inherent “deserving” of one life over others. Neither does the use of the adjectives, “powerful, strong, and capable” validate the assertion as the reason for deserving. Section 12 makes the claim that “the women in the Bible, Esther, Ruth, Martha, Mary. … changed the world forever…” with some “power”, “strength”, and “world-changing” capability inherent to them. This is a false representation of the Scriptural record for each of these women. Esther had no inherent power that enabled her to go before King Xerxes’ to plead for the lives of her people. She asked for the prayers and fasting of her people to ask God to intervene by His power. She acknowledged her complete weakness to be able to effect the saving of even her own life without God’s intervention. To presume that Esther must have had such a “powerful and strong and capable” character to accomplish what she needed to do is to pervert the Biblical record with the humanism of the world that looks for every possible explanation for human accomplishment besides the authority, power and supremacy of God. The same is true of Ruth, who left her homeland, having lost her husband, with her mother-in-law Naomi, hoping for some mercy that Naomi’s God might show her. God did show her mercy, with Naomi, giving her a new family and heritage. But the Scriptures do not allow us to conclude that Ruth was “powerful and strong and capable”, as any reason for the world-changing events that took place hundreds of years later in her lineage, the birth of Jesus. Neither were Martha and Mary world-changers by “powerful and strong and capable” personalities or character. Their humble lot, just as was true with Esther and Ruth, was to be submissive servants of God’s story for the salvation of the world. This did not make them great, or worth dying for, or worthy of any particular acclaim or mention by their own virtue. But God chose to honor them in history, His story, because their place and time and willingness helped to make His story complete, for His own purposes and glory. So, there is no Biblical mandate of responsibility for women “to find that woman”, who is “powerful and strong and capable”, and “set that woman free”. But there is a mandate to humble ourselves before both God and humankind, as God’s servants, to be useful to Him for His story with whatever He gives us in power, strength and capability, always acknowledging they are not our powers, strengths and capabilities, but His, to be used just for His purpose, His glorification. Sections 13 and 14 present us with a dangerous presumption, that any “voices in your mind that try and tell you differently”, than that we are in ourselves powerful, strong and capable, is a voice “from the enemy.” Our perverted nature as children of Adam and Eve is to be self-esteeming, self-serving, self-aggrandizing, self-centered, self-promoting, self-enabling, self-directing, self-affirming, self-asserting, and every other kind of self-ing we can think of to feel good about ourselves. That is the humanistic attitude the world teaches us, in our families, in our schools, in our media, in our culture, even in our churches. The core premise is that we must “feel good about ourselves”; we can’t survive, humanism says, unless we esteem ourselves. But the Scriptures don’t tell us to esteem ourselves, only to humble ourselves before God, and before man to the extent it serves to draw them to glorify God. Section 15 provides a justification to the listener for the self-assertions given in the prior sections. Being “a daughter of the living God, cherished, loved and adored above all things by the creator of all things for the glory of Him who is greater than all things” would seem to justify some sense of pride in ourselves, after all. But that precisely is the insidious nature of Christian-humanistic thought, looking for justification for our self-esteem, rather than being completely content to be without self-esteem, becoming less so God can become more, as Paul said. Esteeming God first and foremost in all things, in all thoughts, results in our spirits sensing our worth in God’s eyes by the witness of His Spirit in us. There is no need to look inward to build ourselves up by thinking we are worthy because God gives us worth. To do so is counterproductive and distracts us from focus on God for Who He Is. God will give us a sense of worth when He wants to, and more so as we yield more of our precious self-esteem to Him for His use, to squash it, to wash it, to keep it from us or to build it up in us. Our responsibility is not to find it in us, but to find ourselves in Christ. It is then His choice alone, whether we will sense His assignment of worth or not. Our place is to be content therein. But Satan himself goads us by telling us that still and small voice inside that says, “Yield your self-esteem to me” is the voice of an enemy of our well-being, when in fact the Spirit quietly coaches us to release ourselves completely to His determination of our worth, our estate and our legacy. Section 16 encourages us to relish in our status as “awesome”. But we never hear this from the Scriptures. We always hear about our “awesomeness” in a context of Who God Is, as our Creator, our rightful Lord and King and Master, our Savior, our Friend. In these contexts it calls our focus away from ourselves, to consider ourselves unworthy and insignificant in any context but one, being enraptured in His throne room with the angels and calling out “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” So, are we awesome? Forget it! It’s not about us. It’s all about Him! “And please, don’t you forget it.”
Posted on: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 03:02:05 +0000